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Saturday, November 26, 2016

Liberty's Kids is an animated series for kids which covers the American Revolution.

It begins with the Boston Tea Party and ends with We the People. Each episode in the 40 episode
series covers a major event of the Revolutionary time period such as The Battle of Bunker Hill, Paul
Revere's Ride and The Intolerable Acts. The 20 minute long episodes are
perfect for short attention spans and an easy introduction to American History.

William J. Bennett's Children's Book of America and Jean Fritz's American History Short Narrative Stories are nice companions for the videos.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Each year at the end of August, the Michigan Fiber Festival is held at the Allegan County Fair Grounds. Fiber comes from furry animals and is used in a variety of crafts. Sheep by far are the stars of the show, but rabbits, alpacas and other animals are also included. The festival lasts for five days with full day, half day and mini workshops offered on four of the days and vendors from around the world on three days.

Workshops in knitting, crocheting, weaving, felting, dying, basket making and soap making were offered. My daughter and I each signed up for two different full-day workshops.

1. Wet Felting

My favorite workshop was using wet-felting techniques to create a wall hanging. Beginning with a pre-shrunk length of fabric, we added bobbles, yarn, ridges, and voids to our sheet before soaking it with soapy water and agitating it to make it stick together and shrink.

In this class each student started with a blank canvas and created unique designs. Everyone's wall hanging turned out vastly different. The commonality was the various techniques used to create the designs. Because of the free flow and creativity offered by this class I was immediately hooked with the craft. (It was the first time I ever wet felted.)

2. Braided Rug

By braiding together lengths of clean fiber, felting them in a washing machine cycle with hot water and cold rinse and then sewing them into a circle we created rugs. This technique results in beautiful rugs that will last a lifetime. The complete technique is explained in the teachers book The Shephard's Rug.

3. Dying the Shibori Way

Dying the Shibori way is like advanced tie dye. Instead of just using rubber bands to create designs in fabric dipped into different dye baths, the Shibori method uses stitches. To create her chicken my daughter sketched her design and then used various stitches which included sewing lentils and beans into the fabric before dying. After dying all the stitching was removed.

4. Rug Hooking

This sheep was created from a kit supplied by the teacher. While my daughter enjoyed the class, she said the technique could have been easily learned with a book. There are many on Amazon.

Fiber festival is not a typical school field trip, but when you encourage your children's interests nothing really is typical. We can't wait to return next year and my 9 year old daughter is looking forward to her first class at fiber festival as well.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

The British soldiers wore red because it disguised the color of blood. To Americans they were known as Lobsterbacks or Red Coats. As professional soldiers, they were sent to America to keep law and order and enforce British rules. On top of being soldiers, they often accepted work in America to supplement their income. Therefore, they were liked by some and loathed by others. After all the country was at war and Americans were not all on the same side.

As tensions rose, they were sometimes taunted and teased in public. These incidents led to some of the most well known scuffles of the war including the Boston Massacre. As the war continued, more and more soldiers were sent to America. There were too many to house in British facilities, therefore many were boarded with families in private homes. To Americans rebelling against British rule, this was a gross injustice.

When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence they wrote up a list of complaints against the British Government. One complaint on the list was the required quartering of British Soldiers at the expense of the Colonists. The book, The 18 Penny Goose, illustrates this complaint through the eyes of a child. When British soldiers came through Letty's village, she was worried about her ducks and wrote the soldiers a note. This easy reader is perfect for kids ages 5-11.

Contrary to the British, the American soldiers were not professional fighters. Instead, they were farmers, merchants and craftsmen. They worked their day jobs and then grabbed their muskets, scythes or other weapons and went off to defend themselves against tyranny. Since they could be ready to fight at a moments notice they were known as minutemen.

The book Sam the Minuteman tells the story of how one minuteman and his son were involved in the first battle of the Revolutionary War.

After reading a little about American and British soldiers my daughter made a tri-corner hat. The basic idea was to cover a piece of cardboard in the shape of a triangle with a circle in the middle for the head with fabric.

First she made a band of white fabric to fit her head. Next she cut out a piece of cardboard with a circle hole in the center for her head.

Then she cut a large circle of fabric. She draped the fabric over her head and then placed the cardboard overtop.

The loose fabric was brought over the cardboard and stitched into place. Then she added a few feathers.

For more American History book/project ideas, please see our History Page.
Check out these great blog hops for more educational activity ideas.

Saturday, November 12, 2016

John Hancock

Everyone knows who George Washington was, but what do you know about John Hancock? He was the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence, but what was his role in the American Revolution?

John Hancock inherited a shipping company and was therefore one of the wealthiest residents of Massachusetts. He used much of his personal wealth in the fight for American independence. Because the British were placing taxes on imports to America, he became a smuggler during the days of the American Revolution.

Reading the book Will You Sign Here John Hancock? by Jean Fritz we learned that John Hancock wanted everyone to like him. He was a great host to both influential Americans and foreign dignitaries. He served as a member of the Continental Congress and was governor of Massachusetts.

George Washington

There are many biographies about George Washington, but sifting through
them all we were able to narrow them down to three picture book
biographies perfect for elementary age children.

We especially enjoyed the two Jean Fritz biographies. In George Washington's Breakfast, a young boy goes on a search to determine what George Washington may have eaten. After searching libraries, museums and his own attic he does arrive at an answer. Then he begins to wonder about lunch. George Washington's Mother was equally entertaining. How would you feel if your son wanted to join the Navy or the Army? What would you do if he decided to run off to fight a war? This book makes George Washington's Mother into a human we can relate to while enabling children to learn about several other reasons George Washington is a hero of America's past.

Liberty Punch

Along with reading biographies of famous Americans, we referenced some of the activities from The American Revolution for Kids. My daughter made Liberty Punch to celebrate American freedom.

The simple recipe mixed raspberry tea, ginger ale and mint leaves. She liked it so much she made it twice.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Since art is a favorite subject for my 9 year old, I have been working to deeply incorporate it into her curriculum. This year she is using the book Teaching English Through Art for writing two days per week. The other days we work together to write and edit stories, descriptive works and other forms of writing. The book has been a big hit!

This week her assignment was to write a sentence containing an oxymoron. (An oxymoron is two words put together that don't normally go together.) The book gave several examples to choose from. With the presidential election only days away honest politician seemed like a natural choice for her.

Her sentence reads "Honest politicians are very rare. Hillary Clinton is not honest."

The other night at dinner, she added, "I hope Hillary doesn't win because I think I want to be the first female president. Or maybe I want to be a clothes designer."

Saturday, November 5, 2016

James Madison and Patrick Henry were two great Americans who stood up for American rights, but they were extreme opposites. We read about these two leaders then my daughter made a t-shirt to help fight for a kid right.

James Madison was a quiet, small man with a history of illness. Reading and learning were great passions of his. He was extremely intelligent and a great thinker. Perhaps a little shy, he did not enjoy speaking to a audience, but did so when he felt it was absolutely necessary. He was a framer of the Constitution and became president of the United States.

Patrick Henry, on the other hand, was a tall, out-spoken man who liked being the center of attention. He began his oratory career arguing in a courthouse and continued making long speeches as a member of the Virginia House of Burgess. By some peers he was seen as a great speaker who sometimes lacked the intelligence or thought behind his words.

Both Patrick and James were opposed to taxes levied on the colonies by the British, but that is the major extent of their agreement. James Madison believed in the Constitution and worked to convince other colonial leaders of its necessity. Conversely, Patrick Henry thought each state should be independent and any document linking the colonies needed, at minimum, a bill of rights.

As it turned out, Madison and those in favor of a constitution won out. After many long months of discussion, the Constitution was ratified without a bill of rights.

Kids Rights

Propaganda, protests and public demonstrations are major ways people
fight for change. I asked my daughter to think about the rights she felt she deserved. When discussing rights it is important to note that a "right" should not indirectly enslave another person. Therefore, if my daughter said it was her right to be served dinner every night I would have argued with her because being served would have required me or another individual to do the serving. In contrast, it would have been alright if she declared it her right to choose whether or not she ate dinner each night. Granted, this example could lead to discussions of charity, mother's duty, and people facing starvation, but the point was to discuss the difference between a right and a desire.

Rights are tricky to understand and this is one area in which we as a nation have currently lost our way. Studying American history gives us a great opportunity to discuss the difference between a right and a privilege.

Therefore, after reading about how these early American patriots
fought for rights they felt they deserved, my daughter made a t-shirt to
help her fight for a right she felt she deserved.

She
used fabric markers to write "Don't go to bed. Stay up instead!" - I
guess she feels she is old enough to determine her own bedtime..........
another topic for discussion.

About Me

I am an American mother of three who spent six years living in Germany. Education has always been a primary focus for me. This blog is packed with fun educational activities for kids. Speed! is a skip-counting game I created in 2011 to help kids learn multiplication. In June 2012 my younger daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia, so that topic has quickly taken over a portion of this blog. You can reach me at
jmommymom @ gmail . com